It's kinda like the Gremlins...

...sort of cute at first and kinda fun. And then before you realize what has happened it has multiplied right before your eyes. All of a sudden here I am with 4 bags of Amish Friendship Bread, bubbling and fermenting ready to be divided into four more bags and baked into 8 loaves of bread. I've lost you haven't I? Let me back up a bit. My J.U.G.G's pal Nicki gave me a gallon zip lock bag of friendship at our last happy hour(s). The whole deal behind this Amish bread is you get this bag of gooey batter with a set of instructions on how to care and nurture it until it is aged enough to be baked into a loaf of yummy-ness. So it's not quite as complex as caring for a Gremlin. You don't have to worry about exposing it to sunlight or feeding it after midnight. Days 1-5 you simply mush the bag and let our any air that may be trapped inside. Day 6 (the day I ALMOST got kicked out of the colony) you add 1 cup of flour, sugar and milk to the bag and you guessed it... mush it some more (I forgot the additions on day 6 and did them on day 7 and guess what-it still worked-those Amish don't scare me). Days 7-9 you keep on smooshing that bag like a farmer tugging on a milk cow's teet (I know-its a stretch). Day 10 is the day I bake like the good little hutterite I am AND more importantly you create 4 starter bags to pass onto friends. This is where I f'd up royally. See 10 days ago when I procreated my 4 new bags of Amish jiz I mushed and added per the directions, but didn't really do the friendship part. Yup, I kept em all. This brings me back to where I began and my current dilemma. Today I baked count em eight, yes 8, loaves of the bread and reproduced sixteen, I repeat 16 new bags. See? Gremlins. Or maybe more like a cat lady who can't seem to part with her beloved kittens or in my case bread starters. But I was worried. Those Amish don't fool around. They threaten if you give all the starters away you won't be able to make the cinnamon-and-sugar-cake-like-bread. Well, guess what. Those hutterite's are a bunch of liars. I found it! Yup, the "starter secret." What does this mean for you? If you live, work or play near me you are getting a "starter" bag of the "no longer mysterious" Amish starter substance. And yes, it's worth all the mushing and messing around.